Busted Ornaments
by AgentOfAngst
Summary: Twas the night before Christmas, and Mabel and Dipper have to clean up a Christmas crime scene that Mabel's triplets and Dipper's twins concocted. Prequel to Mom Can I Have. 9th day of Christmas


**This is a prequel to my story Mom Can I have, where Dipper and Mabel both have kids. But you don't have to read that one to read this one. It's just a tiny little when they're older fic (this one, not that one which is kinda long) the adults are more important than the kids in this story, and the kids are more important than the adults in that story.**

**Enjoy! We're getting super close to Christmas!**

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Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, every creature was screeching, except for Macon. The Pines family was always chaotic, especially at Christmas. Mabel's seven-year-old triplets were only half the chaos though since Dipper's four-year-olds were good for quite a bit of mischief.

"Why do we even decorate?" Dipper asked Meg over one shoulder and Jess over the other, looking at the living room that they'd chosen to decorate, which was in ruins. They lived in a two-story apartment, Mabel getting the downstairs for Isabel, Macon, and Tyrone, who had, with the help of their cousins, totally wrecked their decorated tree, torn down homemade stockings (empty, thank goodness for Santa not coming yet) and booted plastic Santa's across the room. Everyone except Macon.

"I'm taking my little gremlins upstairs for their bedtime routine. I'll help clean up this junk when I'm done," Dipper promised. Mabel nodded and turned to her own gremlins, arms crossed.

"This was enough to get you on the naughty list," she said calmly.

"No!" Tyrone shrieked.

"Santa isn't real," Isabel muttered. Macon jabbed his sister in the stomach with his elbow, "sorry, probably. Santa probably isn't real." Mac gave her another look. Ty looked betrayed.

"You'll be getting your presents tomorrow but each of you will pick one of the things you open to give away to charity. I think Santa would agree that that's a fitting punishment. Now get to bed."

"We're sorry mom," Isabel muttered

"Yeah, we're sorry," Ty echoed. Mac nodded in agreement.

"I know you are. Now get to bed." Mac and Ty headed to their room and Isabel headed to hers. Mabel sighed and began picking up the shambles of the tree, lifting it back to its feet and beginning to pick up ornaments from the ground. She almost didn't notice her brother drop down to his knees and begin to pick through the remains.

"It's kind of impressive how they destroyed every single family heirloom this year. But look! Jess's horrifying popsicle crucifix survived."

"It's not a crucifix," Mabel laughed.

"Then why is it blood red?"

"Because it was made from strawberry popsicle sticks."

"Which I stopped buying for this very reason. Whatever, tis the season." Dipper loved his little girl's more than life itself, but he obviously sounded heartbroken as he picked up an ornament he and Pacifica had gotten for their wedding. This would be the fifth Christmas he'd be spending without the love of his life. It was, also, coincidentally, his girls' fifth Christmas.

"Just put up whatever we have left, we can cover the rest in tinsel."

"I love them but they're monsters," Dipper declared.

"Agreed. I told the triplets that they each had to pick one of their gifts to give to charity. And I'm not gonna let it be socks or underwear."

"Kids do burn through underwear scarily fast," Dipper agreed, grabbing a handheld broom and sweeping up broken glass from a bird ornament Mabel had gotten for graduation. Mabel sighed.

"That's a good idea about the presents, but I'm not sure Meg and Jess would comprehend it all, so I'll just take two presents away and tell them they would've gotten more if they hadn't helped wreck the tree." Dipper began to rehang stockings.

"What do you want for Christmas, Mabel?" Dipper asked as he straightened up a bookshelf that had gotten coated in torn-up paper snowflakes. Precious memories that he now had to trash.

"It's a little late to be buying my Christmas gift, Dipper."

"Oh, I totally have your gift. I was just wondering, out of all the things that exist in the universe, what do you want for Christmas." Mabel laughed and thought it over.

"This is going to sound silly but all I really want this year is sleep. They keep getting older, y'know? And things were hard when Jeremy and I split up but they're much harder now."

"That doesn't sound silly at all. Things have been hard without Pacifica. Sleep would be a wonderful Christmas present. You know what I want, though?" Dipper asked as he moved presents out of the locked closet, probably all shaken and poked at despite being hidden.

"What do you want this year, Dipper?" Mabel asked, stuffing stockings.

"Recognition. Most of these gifts come from Santa Claus. I can't ruin the magic of it, but I wish that I was getting recognition for all the gifts, instead of one or two. Dipper held back two of the Santa gifts, knowing a family in town that would really appreciate a little extra magic this year. He hated punishing his baby girls, but they couldn't get away with stuff like this.

"Aww. I kinda feel bad that Isabel and Macon already for sure know that Santa isn't real. And Ty kinda knows but likes Christmas movies too much to believe it."

"I don't think I'm going to get Frosty the Snowman out of my head until I die. Meg and Jess have been singing it over and over again since Thanksgiving."

"I'm with you, bro. Winter Wonderland haunts my dreams. Hey, this doesn't look half bad." Mabel surveyed the salvaged Christmas tree and Dipper hid the popsicle stick crucifix a little further back on the tree.

"We did a good job, and they're definitely going to get us up early so we should hit the hay," Dipper advised.

"Yeah. Hey, Dipper?"

"Uh-huh, what's up?"

"I hope you get your wish this year. You deserve to have a good Christmas this year."

"You too, Mabel. Merry Christmas."

Twas the night before Christmas, and snug in their beds, two exhausted parents were finally resting their heads.

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**Until Christmas, I'll be releasing a story every day that has a Christmas-y theme.** **We're getting close to the end!**

**Today I got to have fun with my ****Gravity Falls future predictions, tomorrow I'll write my first ever Dear Evan Hansen story, then a Percy Jackson story that I've been meaning to write for years and finally Teen Titans!**


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